Harmonious Hearts
by Private Fire
Summary: My submission for Maikoweek2016. (Not prompt compliant.) Harmonious Hearts is a sweet Maiko modern AU. Summary: Zuko and Mai dance. (Zuko x Mai, Maiko)


**Harmonious Hearts**

 **Author's Notes:**

My submission for Maikoweek2016. (Not prompt compliant.) Harmonious Hearts is a sweet Maiko modern AU.

Summary: Zuko and Mai dance.

Disclaimer - A: TLA is not mine.

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 **"Dancing: A series of movements involving two partners,**

 **where speed and rhythm match harmoniously with music."**

 **– Computer (Wall-E)**

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It's a lazy morning. Zuko is lounging on the couch flipping channels. Mai sits on the floor, just below him, in the lotus position. She is surrounded by pictures and mementos and is arranging them into piles.

"What is that?" he asks, pointing to what she has picked up.

She smiles. "It's the ticket stub to the first movie you ever took me to."

"You kept it?"

"You sound surprised."

He laughs. "No. Not really. I should have known you would." Interested now, he turns of the TV and tosses the remote aside. He sits up and slowly slides off the couch to join her on the floor. Soon, he is picking things up too and reminiscing about them.

"Remember this?" she asks.

"Oh, wow!" he exclaims as he takes it from her. "This is the receipt for the moving company we used when we moved in together."

"Mm-hm. And look at this picture. Remember the trip to the museum? I told you that I had always wanted to go and then you took off from work to surprise me? We drove up there. It was a lovely day and we spent hours talking and just enjoying ourselves."

Zuko stares at the picture and when he doesn't answer, Mai turns to look at him. She finds him staring at her lovingly. "What?"

"Nothing."

"You've got that goofy look again."

"It's called love." He pauses as he recalls the day. "I do remember. I was walking on air that day. I was amazed that you were with me. I was falling in love and I was thinking 'I'm the luckiest man in the world.'"

"You are." She says seriously before dissolving into giggles.

He nuzzles her playfully and kisses her temple. He reaches across her for a set of pictures and begins to flip through them. "Are you going to save all of this in a keepsake box, or are you planning on making a scrapbook?"

"I haven't decided yet. I got caught up just looking at all these things. There are so many memories here."

Zuko stops at a picture where he is holding her in an embrace from behind. She is looking up at him and he remembers the picture was taken just as he was leaning in to kiss her. "Here's one taken of us at Sokka and Suki's wedding reception. You were stunning. I couldn't keep my eyes off you."

"You weren't half bad either," she teases and bumps him with her shoulder.

"Look." He slides in closer to show her a new set of pictures he has come across. "These are from our wedding. I don't remember who took them." He spreads them out on the floor so that they can see them all at once.

Mai starts sorting them into groups. "This set, Sokka took. These here were taken by Aang and Katara. And these were your mother's."

"How can you tell?"

"Easy. Sokka didn't care if he got in anyone's way and was following us around like he was paparazzi. So they came out any which way. Aang and Katara had that new camera and were taking turns at making us pose. And your mom took the most candid set of us which is why we're not looking at the camera at all."

"This is my favorite," he says and picks up one of them dancing. "We wanted a breather from all the commotion at the party and we snuck out into the garden."

"Yeah," she says wistfully. "I remember. The music started playing. You offered me your hand and then spun me around." She laughs. "You pulled me in close and I could feel your heartbeat. I thought I'd never feel so happy again in my life."

"Oh?" He sounds worried.

She is embarrassed because it didn't come out right at all. She quickly explains. "It was all so beautiful – surreal – like a fantasy or a fairy tale. I was bursting with such joy that it felt at the time that I could never be that happy again because nothing could ever top that."

"Nothing? Haven't you been happy?"

"Of course, I have! I've been happy and happier too. I just meant that at the time I was living in the moment. It was enchanted. We were just married and everything was so perfect. The world and everyone in it didn't exist. It was just you and me. I wanted to live in that moment forever and I thought that it could never be duplicated."

"Come on." He gets up and offers her his hand. She takes it. He pulls her up gently. "Over here," he says and leads them to an empty area in the room between the furniture and the hallway.

"What are we doing?"

"Dancing." He stands at the ready, takes her right hand in his left, and places his right on her waist. Slowly, he leads her in a waltz.

"There's no music."

"Shhhh. I'm trying to remember how it goes." He starts humming a tune she knows, but isn't quite familiar with. Then he starts singing.

"Oh, how we danced on the night we were wed.

We vowed our true love, though a word wasn't said."

She gazes up at him adoringly. She is in awe. Zuko rarely sings, but when he does, he signs to her as an expression of love.

"The world was in bloom, there were stars in the skies.

Except for the few that were there in your eyes."

He stops waltzing and brings her in closer to him. She is up against him and can feel his heartbeat. She lays her head on his shoulder as they slowly sway back and forth making small circles on the floor.

"Dear, as I held you close in my arms,

Angels were singing a hymn to your charms.

Two hearts gently beating, were murmuring low,

'Darling, I love you so.'"

He pulls back enough for her to see him without breaking the embrace. He gazes at her intently. He is sing directly to her, telling her with song how he feels.

"The night seemed to fade into blossoming dawn.

The sun shone anew, but the dance lingered on.

Could we but recall that sweet moment sublime,

We'd find that our love is unaltered by time."

Mai is overcome with a feeling of bliss. The lyrics say so much and his singing them to her makes them even more powerful. Her eyes glisten with emotion. He means every word. He feels just as in love as he had been the first time he had stepped onto the cloud, and when they pledged themselves to each other, and every time since.

He stops moving altogether and leans in towards her. She throws her arms around his neck and closes the distance between them. Their kiss is sensual, expressing an explosion of need, desire and reverence. It gradually grows tender. The passion is still there, but adoration rides out the wave. In the end, it always comes back to love.

"Could we but recall that sweet moment sublime . . ."

She finishes the line for him, "We'd find that our love is unaltered by time."

"My darling Mai, I love you so!"

"And I love you too!"

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 **Author's Note:**

The "Anniversary Song" is not mine. It is very popular and has been performed time and time again on film, at weddings, and at anniversary celebrations. The lyrics were composed by Al Jolson and Saul Chaplin and put to the melody of the "Waves of the Danube" (a waltz by Romanian composer Ion Ivanovici - 1880) and published as "The Anniversary Song" in 1946.


End file.
